San Diego players celebrate winning game two in Chicago. Picture taken from previous action. Credit San Diego Gulls.
After the OT loss coach and on a back to back, coach Dallas Eakins elected to put Kevin Boyle back in net for his first start since he left Game 2 against the Condors with a head injury. Jack Kopacka also returned to the line-up after being a healthy scratch since series clinching Game 4 against the Barracuda. Matt Berry was taken out to make room for him, but Eakins put De Leo in his spot with Steel and Roy while placing Kopacka with Kloos and Sherwood on the speed line. Josh Mahura also returned from injury, Patrick Sieloff taken out of the line-up to make room.
San Diego came early with a good forecheck but again the Wolves responded in the Gulls zone, seemingly finding space far too easily as San Diego players seemed a step behind in covering a man. Kevin Boyle looked solid early, making three big stops in the first five minutes.
Jack Kopacka had the Gulls first best opportunity as a broken play off an offensive zone face-off saw the puck bounce to him in the slot but his point blank shot was stopped by Dansk.
Then Sam Carrick got the Gulls the much needed opening goal as he collected a rebound from Adam Cracknell in front and put it by Dansk to make it 1-0 San Diego.
Simon Benoit was assessed a holding penalty a few minutes later as he went in with one hand on the stick to box out his man but the Chicago player held his stick and sold the call to give the Wolves their first power play.
San Diego were much more clinical in denying zone entry than Game 1 and killed the penalty without much concern for Boyle, they did not allow a single shot on goal during the disadvantage.
The Gulls closed out the period still leading 1-0 with shots 8 to 6 for the Wolves.
Teams exchanged time in each-others zones to start the second but Jack Kopacka broke through for the Gulls as he collected the puck at the hash-marks and fired a hard shot that hit the post initially then rebounded straight back to him and in the confusion he fired it over the left shoulder of Dansk with a shot that was so hard that the Swedish goaltender couldn’t even track it until it was by him. Kloos had won the offensive zone face-off and Kiefer Sherwood the board battle to retrieve and get the puck to Kopacka. 2-0 Gulls.
With just under fourteen minutes remaining in the period Kiefer Sherwood was sent to the box for elbowing to put the Gulls down a man for the second time in the game. Once again the Gulls penalty kill prevented the Wolves from getting any zone time or real chances on Boyle, shutting down any shots on net for the duration for the second straight time.
The Wolves responded with a push for the next ten minutes as they dominated possession, forcing the Gulls to ice the puck consecutively until the vet line took back control by getting the puck in the Chicago zone deep and frustrating the Whitecloud-Hague pairing until a penalty was called for interference against Chicago on Matteau.
Chicago had a shorthanded chance early as Carr broke through the Gulls defense and threw the puck on net where an on-rushing Griffin Reinhart was close to deflecting it but Boyle swallowed the chance up with his usual calm demeanor. The rest of the power play was essentially a wash as Chicago negated the Gulls from getting any real setup and the minutes ticked by for the rest of the period with San Diego reverting to their aggressive forecheck. Teams headed into the second intermission with San Diego leading 2-0 and shots 18 to 14 for Chicago.
The Wolves started out the third with desperation and earned their third power play of the game as Jaycob Megna was called for high sticking in front of the Gulls net during a net front scramble after a Chicago high danger chance. This iteration of the man advantage looked much more dangerous from the Wolves but Boyle was again calm in preventing any puck getting by him while the Gulls resettled into to blocking out any attempt to enter their zone for the final twenty seconds of the kill.
Chicago carried momentum forward from the power play and were inches from getting on the board when Curtis McKenzie almost completed a perfect wrap around play but his finish went harmlessly across the goal crease and into Kevin Boyles outstretched pad.
Just as the Gulls appeared to be getting some semblance of momentum back through some great shifts from the Comtois and Carrick lines, Sam Steel was assessed a high sticking penalty behind the play to put San Diego down a man for the fourth time in the game. Jaycob Megna was seemingly on the ice for the entire kill and made three or four game saving plays to almost single handedly prevent the Wolves from scoring with the man advantage.
San Diego then settled into a defensive mode for the remainder of the game and even when they were given their first power play thanks to Cody Glass cross-checking Benoit awkwardly into the boards, they preferred to maintain possession whenever possible – playing a conservative keep away style rather than chance any shot that might result in attacking rush for the Wolves.
Chicago pulled Dansk with just under a minute and thirty seconds left but a turn over and some nice passing up from Sherwood to Steel at the red line allowed the rookie to hit the empty net and make it 3-0.
The Gulls were given another power play in the final minute as Larsson was tripped coming through the neutral zone but at this point you could see the Chicago players were immensely frustrated by being shutdown by the relentless San Diego forecheck. At the final horn Jack Kopacka wound up to hit a puck but stopped as time had expired but for some reason a Wolves player took exception to him evening winding up in the first place and more pushing and shoving resulted to end festivities.
San Diego taking the game 3-0 and evening the series up at one in a clinical shutdown road game that felt inevitable given how well they played and how close they game to winning game 1. Shots were 29-23 for the Wolves at games end.
Game 3 is Wednesday night, Game 4 is Friday night and Game 5 is Saturday night all of which are in San Diego. The Gulls could potentially close out the series over the next three game stretch at home.
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